United

Paul’s chief concern in his letter to the believers in Corinth is to bring unity to a divided church. Much of the letter attempts to persuade the Corinthians that they should be unified. The church in Corinth reflected its culture, which was filled with divisions rooted in pride, self-promotion, thirst for social status, pursuit of carnal pleasures, and an insistence on one’s rights. A relevant question now, as then, is this: Is Christian culture compatible with a culture that insists on the exercise of individual rights and on the values of self-gratification and self-fulfillment? Paul’s answers to these surprisingly modern issues assist us in discovering a more genuinely gospel-centered, Christ-oriented vision for life together in Christian community.